This and That!

Hey Lovies,

I'm finally back from our TG holiday. We did a good bit of cooking at my house, and my husband and I also drove the  3 and 1/2 hours to get to my family as well. Anyway, I'm back and ready for blogging!

Here we go:

Laura's Apple Blackberry Pie

5 Fuji apples
1 bag of frozen blackberries
Prepared pie crust (I made my own, but why make life harder?) and sheet of pastry dough for top crust.
1, 2 (10) cups of granulated sugar
Pinch of cinnamon

No seriously. You don't need 10 cups of granulated sugar, but it is pretty much up to your discretion. I used 1 cup and a smidge.

1. Peel your apples and cut into quarters. Core the apple by slicing down on the side of the apple through the core-bit thingy.

2. Put your apples into a saucepan with enough water to just barely cover them. Add sugar and pinch of cinnamon to taste.

3. Cook apples until soft. They'll be sort of goldeny-brown and a bit translucent around the edges. It will also be very fragrant! Yum! Turn heat to low.

4. Add your frozen blackberries to the mixture and stir gently. You don't want to completely break up the berries.

5. Pour the whole shebang into a pie crust and cover with the sheet of pastry. Trim the edges and cut a vent in the center. I do about three slashes in the top crust.

6. Cook at 450 until crust is golden brown.


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Upcoming Posts:

-One Lovely Blog Award! Thank you, Emily!! <3

-Meet my family!

-Sweet Potato Casserole (No, it isn't just for Thanksgiving!)

-Hair dying tips and tricks. Take it from a really cheapskate expert!

Hey, Goodlookin'. Whatcha' got cookin'?

Yes, it is 2:13 a.m, and I am awake. Since my melatonin isn't working for me anymore, my sleep is all over the place. Since I am up, I figured I would toss out a recipe for the dinner I made tonight:

Honey Mustard Glazed Pork Tenderloin:

-Yellow mustard
-Honey
-Garlic powder
-Onion powder
-Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 450

This glaze is really going to be done to your taste. I eyeballed the whole thing and kept tasting until it was just right for me. A general rule of thumb is to use more yellow mustard than honey. Honey goes a long way. You also just want a pinch of the spices, so they'll just be in the background adding a little pop.

1. I cut two nice medallions off of our tenderloin (We keep a big tenderloin cut into sections in our freezer for weeknight meals. You can also do this with hamburger meat!), and I skewered them with two bamboo skewers each. This helps you stabilize the meat for grilling.

2. Spray a little non-stick spray on your stovetop grill pan or on the actual grill.

3. Baste your medallions and lay them on the grill until you get grill marks. Baste the opposite side, flip.

4. Once your medallions are grilled on both sides, take them off of the grill and finish them up in the oven on the same grill pan (a regular sheet pan will do) to get the center cooked through. Baste again on both sides of the meat before putting them in the oven.

I kept an eye on them, and I ended up cooking them for about 10 more minutes until done.
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I also tried out a new biscuit recipe. I ended up modifying it, so I'll give you the updated version:

Quick and Easy Drop Biscuits:

-2 cups self rising flour
-4 tablespoons mayo (No clue. It was in a recipe online.)
-1 to 1 1/2 cups milk
-Pinch of salt
-Pinch of sugar

Preheat oven to 450.

1. Start with the dry ingredients and get those incorporated well in your bowl. You don't need a mixer to do this. Just use a fork or a spatula.

2. Add in the milk slowly. You're looking for a soft texture. It doesn't need to be "together" enough to roll out, because you're going to be doing these in a "drop biscuit" style. You just want enough milk to bind the dry ingredients together.

3. Take a tablespoon and scoop up a nice little mound of dough. "Drop" it on the greased cooking sheet. It should be about the size of a golf ball.

Cook for 7 to 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them. For some reason, biscuits can creep up on you. One minute they are raw, next minute they are done!

Hope you enjoy these recipes. All in all, they are pretty quick and easy!

Cooking bacon wrapped pork tenderloin medallions dredged in the same spicy brown sugar seasoning from the chicken wrap recipe. Yams and cous cous sides! Yummmm.

Just tried this Paula Deen recipe for sweety and spicy chicken wraps:
I played around a bit with the ingredients.
About 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsps bbq seasoning
1 tsp onion powder
Do all this to taste, of course.
Cut a chicken breast into cubes and wrap with slice of bacon. Skewer and then roll in the spices.
Bake in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes. Yum!!!

Discovered a great addition to regular brownie mix: add one or two tbl spoons of smuckers hot fudge sauce, heated for 45 seconds on high. Take a skewer and drag the hot fudge through the batter for a marbelized effect. This will make your brownies nice and gooey!

Our favorite meatloaf recipe.

This is a meatloaf I've been making a lot lately for David and myself. Try it!

Meatloaf:

This all began because I absolutely hate meatloaf (David loves it!)...I hate the texture mainly. I love the idea of it, but I can't stand the way it feels in the mouth. I basically took out all of the yucky texture ingredients and upped the onion to give the same moisture.

1. You'll need to estimate how much hamburger meat to use. There are only two of us, so we fill one small loaf pan with a little left over for lunch the next day.

2. 1/2 of a medium onion. Doesn't matter what kind. We use regular yellow onions. Don't skimp on this. Since we won't be using eggs or bread crumbs, the onion provides the moisture.

3. 2 cloves of garlic (pressed or minced).

4. Salt and pepper to taste.

5. Onion powder and meat tenderizer to taste.

6. Ketchup and some sort of Asian sauce. I use sesame garlic glaze.

-Mix everything up in a bowl. I use plastic gloves to do this part (Thank goodness David's a nurse and has powderless gloves around the house!), because it gets pretty disgusting and messy. The last thing I add in is about 2 tablespoons of ketchup. It adds flavor and helps keep the meat moist. I do the same thing when making hamburgers, except then I add ketchup and mustard!

-Preheat your oven to 350-375.

-Put mixture into loaf pan. We use a glass one. Top with a mixture of about 2 tablespoons ketchup and 1 teaspoon Asian sauce. You may have to play with this a little to get the right flavor.

Cook meat loaf for 30 to 40 minutes. Drain the liquids out of your loaf pan and make a cut in the center of the loaf to make sure it is done. If there is a little pink there, stick it back in the oven for a few minutes. You can even turn the oven off. The residual heat should finish the cooking for you.